Publications

May 1999 (Revised November 2000)
Case

AES Global Values

By: Lynn S. Paine

Members of the development team for the AES Corp.'s power plant project in India must decide what plant technology to specify in their application for techno-economic clearance from the government of India's Central Electric Authority. Their choice is between more... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Generation; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; India; United States

02 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 2

Lead Times Authors:Santiago Kraiselburd, Richard Pibernik, and Ananth Raman Publication:Production and Operations Management (forthcoming) Abstract It is generally a well acknowledged fact that, ceteris paribus, reducing the lead times... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Colbún and the Future of Chile's Power

By: Forest Reinhardt and Shon R. Hiatt

This case is about Colbún, Chile's second largest electricity generator, which is facing significant uncertainty regarding the cost and availability of alternative energy sources. Problems with the contracted supply of natural gas and the volatility of oil prices,... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Chile; Environmental Protection; Energy Generation; Energy Industry; South America; Chile

2021
Working Paper

How to Fix ESG Reporting

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

Investors, advocacy groups, academics, and the 200 CEOs of the US Business Roundtable have asked corporations to take on an added purpose beyond a narrow pursuit of shareholder value. In response, many companies now issue ESG (Environmental, Societal, and Governance)... View Details

Keywords: ESG Reporting; Sustainability; Corporate Purpose; Greenhouse Gas; Activity-Based Costing; Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Measurement and Metrics; Goals and Objectives; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Accountability

SSRN

Read Now

23 Nov 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Growth Through Heterogeneous Innovations

Keywords: by Ufuk Akcigit & William R. Kerr; Technology

January 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

CrossBoundary Energy

By: John Macomber

Almost 500 million people are without electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. Governments and public utilities are challenged to bring generation and distribution to most of them. Considerable promise exists in “off-grid” or “mini-grid” technologies, notably using renewable... View Details

Keywords: Energy Investing; Economic Development; Renewable Energy; Business Growth and Maturation; Developing Countries and Economies; Project Finance; Emerging Markets; Industry Structures; Infrastructure; Segmentation; Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Africa; Tanzania; Ghana

October 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

UPower Technologies Inc.

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and Liz Kind

The UPower founders, Jake DeWitte and Caroline Cochran, were recent graduates from MIT's Nuclear Science and Engineering Department. They chose to attend Palo Alto–based Y Combinator's accelerator program to focus on building a "mini" nuclear reactor that would produce... View Details

Keywords: Nuclear; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear Power; Energy Markets; New Nuclear; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurial Marketing; Business ＆ Government Relations; Off-grid; Energy; Renewable Energy; Energy Generation; Energy Sources; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Business and Government Relations; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; United States

01 Mar 2022
What Do You Think?

Is It Time for More Reverse Mentoring?

with our younger talent about ideas they are proposing for our company’s strategic direction? Personally, should I be making use of one or more of these apps that I don’t understand? Twenty-five years ago, there was a sense at General... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Web

Faculty & Advisors | MBA

M.D. MS/MBA Program Faculty Co-Chair for MS Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, Chief of Pathways Consult Service at Massachusetts General Hospital Douglas Melton, Ph.D. MS/MBA Program Faculty Co-Chair... View Details

06 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 6, 2007

India, and asks if the world's leading biotechnology firm should develop similar delivery-based systems. Purchase this case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=507018 RKS Guitars Harvard Business School Case 507-003 RKS has designed a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Can AI Match Human Ingenuity in Creative Problem-Solving?

When ChatGPT and other large language models began entering the mainstream two years ago, it quickly became apparent the technology could excel at certain business functions, yet it was less clear how well artificial intelligence could handle more creative tasks. Sure,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information Technology; Information; Technology

11 Mar 2016
Blog Post

2+2 Admit Experiments with Career Options

The 2+2 Program was unknown to me until late in my senior year as an Electrical and Computer Engineering student at the University of Texas at Austin (UT). By happenstance, a recent UT alum and friend told me about the opportunity. Up to... View Details

Benson P. Shapiro

Benson P. Shapiro is a well-known authority on marketing strategy and sales management with particular interests in pricing, product line planning, and marketing organization. He is also the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing Emeritus at the Harvard Business... View Details

24 Jan 2024
Op-Ed

Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago

of retirement to replace Condit. Stonecipher, a General Electric (GE) alum, immediately set out to change Boeing’s culture, proclaiming, “When people say I changed the culture of Boeing, that was the intent,... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Air Transportation; Transportation; Aerospace

14 Jun 2012
Working Paper Summaries

“Power from Sunshine”: A Business History of Solar Energy

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones & Loubna Bouamane; Energy; Utilities

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Web

Great American Business Leaders of the 20th Century - Leadership

Group, 1974–1995 Elizabeth E. Boit Winship, Boit, & Company, 1888–1928 J. Chadbourn Bolles Chadbourn, 1936–1970 Fred J. Borch General Electric Company, 1963–1972 Lawrence A. Bossidy AlliedSignal, Inc.,... View Details

24 Feb 2016
HBS Seminar

David Brumley of Carnegie Mellon University

March 1994 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Reading Energy

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Reading Energy builds facilities that produce energy from nontraditional fuels. A privately held, entrepreneurial organization, it has spent six years developing a plan to build a waste-to-energy plant in the town of Robbins, Illinois. The plant would burn municipal... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business and Community Relations; Business Plan; Agreements and Arrangements; Contracts; Risk and Uncertainty; Government and Politics; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Illinois